NEW ATOMIZATION PROCESS FOR METAL POWDER

摘要

A new atomization process has been developed, which combines pressure and gas atomization. The melt leaves the pressure nozzle as a hollow cone in the form of a thin film. After the prc-filming step, the melt is atomized by a gas stream delivered by a ring nozzle. The objectives of this investigation arc to achieve a narrow size distribution and low specific gas consumption compared to conventional gas atomization techniques. Both lead to a higher efficiency and low costs. Tin and some alloys have been atomized successfully with this technique. The mass median diameter from different experiments arc between 20 and 100 |im. Sieving analysis of the tin powder show tight particle size distributions.